Fabrication of submicron Nb/AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions using ECR plasma etching technique

It is important to develop a high-yielding and reproducible fabrication process of submicron Nb/AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions tee improve the integration level and the operating speed of Josephson LSI circuits. For this purpose, we have developed a junction fabrication process by introducing an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma, etching technique with CF4 gas. In the ECR plasma etching technique, highly anisotropic etching of Nb was achieved, Over-etching was reduced by 86%. Wt have successfully fabricated Nb/AlOx/Nb junctions with critical current density of 10(4) A/cm(2) using the cross-line patterning (CLIP) method and the electron beam (EB) lithography technique, where the size of the junctions was varied from 2 mu m to 0.5 mu m at 0.1 mu m intervals. High-quality submicron junctions far integrated circuits with small spread of critical current Ic was obtained. High uniformity of He was achieved. The characteristics of the fabricated junctions are discussed and compared with the junctions fabricated by RIE technique.